This trip from Cape Town, SA to Auckland NZ differed to leg 1 in various ways
Despite this leg taking us close to 48 degrees South, the toughest conditions we experienced started about a day after sailing from Cape Town. It’s no secret that the Agulhas current around the Cape of Good Hope can provide some very challenging, often dangerous conditions for mariners and it’s safe to say it didn’t hold back for us. With roughly 35 knots of wind against current, the short, steep waves gave us a thrashing. I experienced my first wipe out breaker whilst on the helm – I could see the wave rolling towards us, the thundering sound of the white water crashing into the trough rapidly approaching and warned the others on deck. I tried to bear away as much as possible but there was little time to manoeuvre before it engulfed us, and engulfed us it did! I was washed off of the helm along with the guys washed onto the port side deck. After a quick swim in the aft cockpit, I clambered back onto the helm and regained course. Fortunately we were all clipped on so there were no major incidents, just a good shake up to keep us on our toes and the gift of soggy boots that remained soggy for until we arrived in Auckland.
The week that followed the Agulhas current was our coldest of the voyage. The sea temperature dropped very quickly from 20°C to a low of 6.5°C, but averaged out around 8°C over the leg. The sea temperature is something that I keep an eye on not just because I’m curious about how cold I can expect it to be down below, but also because it gives a good indication of the ocean currents, more importantly changing currents. Similarly to leg 1, the sun, moon, stars and planets spent a lot of time hiding behind the clouds so I wanted to make sure my dead reckoning was as accurate as possible and any adjustments to the calculations including currents need to be kept on top of. The difference between the legs however were that after setting sail on the 5th November, we did not see a single ship until the 10th December when I was able to get a position report, placing us 6 nautical miles from my dead reckoning position. Not too shabby! I did think we had spotted a ship mid-way through the voyage after seeing a singular white light just off to port, however after several minutes of hailing “Merchant Navy Vessel x3…” and having no response, I gave up, assuming it was a lone fishing vessel not keeping a good watch on VHF channel 16. Despite this, I sat in the nav station for a while just in case they decided to perk up and a few moments later, the VHF crackled and it was no other than ‘Galiana With Secure’, another competitor who could also see some lights. Upon further investigation, the singular white light we could see was in fact their stern light, and the red and green they could see, our tricolour lights! I’m not sure who was more surprised!
I hate to say it, but the weather fax became my nemesis during this leg. For the first part of the race I was able to have the unit set up on a timer programme to turn on exactly when I wanted, scanning a group of frequencies that I told it to so that when I woke up or came down from the deck there were some lovely synoptic charts waiting for my careful analysis. This time the fax decided it would not play ball under the automatic or manual set up, meaning I had to sit by it as it slowly dribbled out paper, constantly changing the frequencies until an image that was readable appeared on the page. The scheduled ‘buddy chats’ with other competitors over the HF radio proved to be very useful in determining what frequency the weather fax would need. If we struggled to hear each other on the 8mHz and had to chop to 12mHz, then chances were the WF would also require a higher frequency. I even got good at analysing the shades of grey that were produced and whether it meant going up or down. I know I am not the only one who has had issues with the fax – Maiden were unable to use theirs throughout the whole of leg 1, and Tapio on ‘Galiana With Secure’ dislikes it so much that he has installed theirs in the heads. This does of course bring some practical difficulties…
I am in awe of the wildlife the Southern Ocean has to offer. As much as I love seeing the bigger mammals such as whales and dolphins, my favourite animal has to be the Albatross. The way they swoop and soar over the waves is breath-taking, something you can watch for hours and something I had the fortune of doing!
In terms of the racing, we always knew this leg would be a little more difficult for us in terms of how we faired against other boats. The majority of the leg was downwind which due to our sail selection set us back slightly – we have three asymmetric spinnakers and one now unusable symmetric. Nonetheless, the crew spirit remained high throughout, even when it paid to be ahead with the bigger yachts racing around Cape Reinga whilst we were having a slow drift in the Tasman due to a looming high pressure. The first speckles on Radar as we approached Cape Reinga were a beautiful sight. To give you some context regarding our speed, ‘Galiana With Secure’ were just one mile behind us as we drew closer to Auckland however they finished roughly three hours after us. Painful!
Each day I am learning new things about myself, the boat, racing as well as different aspects of sailing and I can’t help but feel extremely fortunate to be here. It goes without saying that I am so unbelievably grateful for all of the continued support from back home and I’m proud to have flown the RLymYC “battle flag” and burgee whilst alongside in Auckland.